Project 1001: Midnight Ride by Paul Revere & the Raiders
Don't listen to them chatter / You gotta use your own grey matter
Midnight Ride has some great songs like “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” and “Kicks”. I’m just not sure this is a great album in its entirety. There is nothing particularly wrong with it or substandard. It simply does not rise to anything other than well-executed yet fairly pedestrian mid-60s rock/pop. I have to confess I am a bit surprised at its inclusion in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. And I can’t find out why because the edition I have does not include this record. I enjoyed listening to this but other than the previously mentioned cuts I’m not likely to revisit. My rating:
AllMusic gave just three stars to the album in its review saying:
“Midnight Ride marked just about the pinnacle of Paul Revere & the Raiders' history as a source of great albums. Even more to their credit, most of the music on Midnight Ride was written by the bandmembers themselves, and not just Mark Lindsay and Paul Revere, but Phil Volk, Drake Levin, and Mike Smith getting a shared songwriting credit. The irony is that this was the last album on which that egalitarian spirit was to dominate; alongside the tight, hard, eminently danceable rock & roll sounds that comprise about two-thirds of this album, there are signs of the softer, more introspective balladry that lead singer Mark Lindsay was starting to favor in his songwriting ("Little Girl in the Fourth Row," etc.). It was this stylistic break, coupled with disputes over which bandmembers were to get their songs represented on the group's albums, that led to Levin's departure following the release of this album, which helped precipitate a stylistic drift away from the sound that defined the group.”1
Billboard labeled Midnight Ride a “Top-of-the-shelf LP”.2
The Phoenix New Times had an interesting take on the album after its reissue as part of a set in 2000. I include the whole thing because it made me laugh:
The proof that they squandered not a minute of that massive TV exposure can be found on early albums like Midnight Ride. Listen, my children, and you shall hear the Raiders' original version of "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone," which smokes the comparatively tamer one the Monkees recorded eight months later. Nothing less than the ancestral touchstone to Elvis Costello's "Lipstick Vogue," this snarling diatribe has it all: menacing Farfisa vamps, loud drums, testifying tambourines and, best of all, a growling Mark Lindsay vocal that makes a Monkee outta Micky Dolenz, Johnny Rotten and anyone else who tried to cart this song out of the Raiders' garage.
Midnight Ride also has the seeds of destruction that would tear the original set of colonists apart. Because it was still the era of the Beatles, even the drummer got to sing and write songs. Thanks for nuttin', Ringo! After this LP, the songwriting-royalty-hungry Raiders would not sign for any more deliveries from the Brill Building, the source of their top-shelf material like the aforementioned "Stone" and "Kicks." The latter song, also on Midnight Ride, was a Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil anti-drug anthem intended for the Animals and turned down by Eric Burdon (who probably scared more kids off hard drugs with his laughable acid love poems about Monterey and girls named Sandoz).
This album also boasts the first signs of the "soppy romantic" teen idol Mark Lindsay. On "Melody for an Unknown Girl," he felt it necessary to explain an instrumental to young fans in his best "caring Mark" voice: "Most songs have words, except this one . . . which has no words, because there are no words, just a melody . . ." Wow, man. Deep.
This regrettable dumbing-down trend will result in countless "Lady Jane" rewrites later on, but Stones fans will forgive the band, because Midnight Ridegives an accurate picture of what Aftermath and Out of Our Headswould've sounded like with authentic American accents.
It's only when Mark stopped imitating Jagger imitating Muddy Waters and went straight to Joe Tex for inspiration that he came off like Micky Dolenz imitating James Brown. Even more Monkee business ensued when the Raiders were replaced by the American Recording Studio house band on the misdirected Goin' to Memphisalbum in 1968.
Mark Lindsay's no Dusty Springfield, that's for sure. It's hard to know what's worse, his attempts at Sambo singing or how everyone from Isaac Hayes to Rufus Thomas to a string of respected Memphis DJs shamelessly perjured themselves on the original liner notes, saying what a gas it was having the Raiders in their fair city, and worse, what a fantastic album this turd fricassee is.3
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
Prime Playlist: 223. Midnight Ride by Paul Revere & the Raiders
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For details about this project, read this: Project 1001 Albums
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: #94
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart: n/a
• RIAA certification: Gold | March 20, 19675
Released on May 6, 1966. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: “Good Lovin’” by the Young Rascals6
• Number one album: What Now My Love by Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass7
• Number one movie: Dr. Zhivago by David Lean8
• Most watched TV programs: Bonanza, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., The Lucy Show, The Red Skelton Hour, Batman, The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, The Beverly Hillbillies, Hogan’s Heroes, Green Acres, Get Smart, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., My Three Sons9
• NYT bestseller, fiction: The Source by James Michener10
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote11
Some other albums released that month
• Dust on Mother's Bible by Buck Owens
• Everybody Loves a Nut by Johnny Cash
• Up-Tight by Stevie Wonder
• Small Faces by Small Faces
• What Now My Love by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
• Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys
• Moods of Marvin Gaye by Marvin Gaye
• Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra
• Try Too Hard by Dave Clark Five
• Wayne Newton – Now! by Wayne Newton12
Sport
• May 5 Stanley Cup Final, Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI: Montreal Canadiens earn back-to-back titles; beat Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 in OT for a 4-2 series victory.
• May 7 92nd Kentucky Derby: Donald Brumfield aboard Kauai King wins in 2:02.
• May 21 Muhammad Ali TKOs Henry Cooper in 6 for heavyweight boxing title.13
Notable Births
• May 4 Jane McGrath, British-Australian co-founder of the McGrath Foundation for breast cancer, born in Paignton, Devon (d. 2008).
• May 13 Darius Rucker, American rock singer (Hootie & the Blowfish - "Only Wanna Be With You"), born in Charleston, South Carolina.
• May 14 Fab Morvan, French singer-songwriter, dancer, and de-frocked Grammy Award winner (Milli Vanilli with Rob Pilatus), born in Paris, France.
• May 16 Janet Jackson, American pop singer (Control, "Nasty"), sister of Michael, born in Gary, Indiana.14
Historical Events
• May 9 Andrew F. Brimmer is the first black member of Federal Reserve Board.
• May 13 US Federal education funding is denied to 12 school districts in the South because of violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
• May 16 Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party releases the "May 16 Notification", Chairman Mao's official justification for the Cultural Revolution.15
Notable Deaths
• May 14 Georgia BD Camp Johnson, American poet/playwright, dies at 88.
• May 15 Kathryn Forbes, American short story writer (mama's bank account), dies at 58.
• May 19 Tortoise, reportedly given to Tonga's King by Captain James Cook in 1773, dies at around 193.16
Ibid.